to me I will in
no wise cast out,' is his own word. He will help you if you will let
him, Diana."

Diana's head pressed more heavily against Basil's arm; the temptation
was to break out into wild weeping at this contact of sympathy, but she
would not. Did her husband guess how much she was in want of help? That
thought half frightened her. Presently she raised her head and sat up.

"Here is another verse," said her husband, "which tells of a part of my
work. 'Go ye into the highways, and as many as ye shall find, _bid to
the marriage_.'"

"I don't understand"--

"'The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king which made a
marriage for his son,'--it means rather a wedding entertainment."

"How, Basil?"

"The Bridegroom is Christ. The bride is the whole company of his
redeemed. The time is by and by, when they shall be all gathered
together, all washed from defilement, all dressed in the white robes of
the king's court which are given them, and delivered from the last
shadow of mortal sorrow and infirmity. Then in glory begins their
perfected, everlasting union with Christ; then the wedding is
celebrated; and the supper signifies the fulness and communion of his
joy in them and their joy in him."

Basil's voice was a little subdued as he spoke the last words, and he
paused a few minutes.

"It is my business to bid people to that supper," he said then; "and I
bid you, Di."

"I will go, Basil."

But the words were low and the tears burst forth, and Diana hurried
away.

CHAPTER XXIV.

THE MINISTER'S WIFE.

Diana plunged herself now into business. She was quite in earnest in
the promise she had made at the end of the conversation last recorded;
but to set about a work is one thing and to carry it through is
another; and Diana did not immediately see light. In the meanwhile, the
pressure of the bonds of her new existence was only to be borne by
forgetting it in intense occupation. Her husband wanted her to study
many things; for her own sake and for his own sake he wished it,
knowing that her education had been exceedingly one-sided and
imperfect; he wanted all sources of growth and pleasure to be open to
her, and he wanted full communion with his wife in his own life and
life-work. So he took her hands from the frying-pan and the preserving
kettle, and put dictionaries and philosophies into them. On her part,
besides the negative incitement of losing herself and her troubles in
books, Diana